Mobile phone screens will be able to recover when cracked or scratched in the next few years

A team of researchers from California Riverside University invented a material that is thought to be able to repair itself when cracked or scratched. Lead researcher Chao Wang said the material is made of flexible polymers and ionic salts, and it can be extended to about 50 times its original size. When they split this material into two halves, it will automatically join together for about a day.

" Perhaps it will take a long time to apply these types of self-healing materials to reality, but I believe we will soon see these materials being used, " Wang said. In the mobile sector, within the next three years, these types of self-healing products will gradually be launched into the market and change our daily lives. develop one more step in the future. "

The self-healing nature of the polymer material depends very much on a particular type of bond called bipolar ion interaction, which is formed from the force between positively charged ions and polar molecules. When torn, broken or scratched, this bond will cause the ions and molecules of the material to attract each other, after a while the damage will automatically resume. California Riverside University research team's materials are also the first conductive self-healing material, which is essential if you want to be used as a phone screen. Although LG has created a number of phones that have a self-healing backside, LG's materials cannot conduct electricity, making this material useless if you want to apply it to the phone screen.

The application of such materials will have a huge impact on the smartphone industry when it can cause scratches or even cracking of mobile phone screens worldwide. also a concern.

Wang said the material could be formally adopted in the manufacture of phone and battery screens by 2020. The material will be introduced today at the National Exhibition Conference. 253 of the American Chemical Society (National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society).